What if we could co-create new opportunities? Support and empower marginalized communities? Offer someone a chance at a better future? By building an integrative system - forming new networks, both digital and physical.

Chicago is in a state of socio-economic imbalance.

The unemployment rates for veterans, people with disabilities and people of color are tremendously high. In Chicago, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 25% - making it the highest rate amongst the nation's 5 most populous cities. There is a 17.3% unemployment rate among veterans between the ages of 18-24 years old.

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 10.4%, which is approximately double the rate of those without disabilities.

Meanwhile, healthcare and information technology are rapidly growing industries in Chicago. Making up 85% of posted job openings.

While these numbers present a daunting challenge, they also point to an opportunity for positive social change - a chance to transition from a state of profound imbalance towards homeostasis - with the help of an effective support system.

CodeAbode is an educational division of The National Museum of Health + Medicine Chicago, and is the first non-profit code school focused on healthcare information technology. Our aim is to coordinate a cooperative, integrated system. To simultaneously support underserved communities and Chicago’s booming healthcare industry by providing community-funded student scholarships for those experiencing social and economic hardships, facilitating technical job training, decreasing unemployment rates and boosting local economic growth.

The effectiveness of this system is predicated on symbiosis. We are linking with other non-profit organizations to collaboratively support personal empowerment, self-reliance and career advancement. We are also creating networks with healthcare employers and developing partnerships to create pathways for students to transition from one phase, to the next. Out of course work and into the workforce.

As with any evolving system, this requires operational support. Receiving help from our surrounding communities is a pivotal component of the systems success and stability. Join us in providing the necessary resources to catalyze positive socio-economic change, to give someone in need the opportunity to learn, grow, reach their full potential and (de)code their future.

Please donate now to help fund a CodeAbode scholarship for a deserving student. Donations will be grouped in the order that they come in, to form scholarships for individual students. All of the donors for a given scholarship become the sponsors of that student, and will be recognized as such on the CodeAbode web site. So please donate now, and help create a life-transforming opportunity for a deserving student.